Pressure mounts on Hungary to unblock EU membership talks and funds for Ukraine
Pressure is mounting on Hungary not to veto the start of European Union membership talks and the supply of economic aid to Ukraine at a pivotal EU summit this week
BRUSSELS — Pressure mounted on Hungary on Monday not to veto the opening of European Union membership talks and the supply of economic aid to war-torn Ukraine at a pivotal EU summit this week, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded that the issue be struck from the agenda.
With tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance blocked by Senate Republicans in the United States, Ukraine is desperate to ensure longer-term financial and military assistance as fighting in its almost 2-year war with Russia bogs down.
In a draft of the summit statement seen by The Associated Press, the EU’s leaders will decide to open accession negotiations with Ukraine. But Orban is not backing down. He insists that a “strategic discussion” is needed, given the stalemate on the battlefield and uncertainty about U.S. leadership after elections next year.
“I hope that the European unity will not be broken because this is not the moment to weaken our support to Ukraine. Just the contrary, this is the moment to increase it,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels, where he chaired a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
Decisions on EU enlargement, which also concern Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova this week, and a review of the bloc’s long-term budget that includes 50 billion euros ($54.1 billion) in aid for Kyiv, can only be taken unanimously by all 27 member countries.
Hungary relies on Russia for some of its energy supplies, and Orban is seen as President Vladimir Putin’s strongest ally in Europe. The government in Budapest has routinely
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